Over the past few days, Jamaica, as incoming Chair, has been proudly hosting the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) 39th annual Conference of Heads of Government in Montego Bay for approximately 200 foreign officials. We have been regaled with numerous social media posts, video clips with cameras panning across sunlit views of the coastline and happy, smiling […]

On Tuesday night, while many of us were tucked up in bed, a tsunami alert for Jamaica and other islands went out, triggered by a huge earthquake between Honduras and the Cayman Islands, for an hour or so; it was then discontinued. The next day, there were some careless and downright silly comments on social […]

Here’s an important question, in this “information age” where we try to know everything about everywhere (at least superficially): How is it that there are some parts of the world that we simply ignore? No matter what disasters befall these places, we just shrug shoulders and move on. That is, if these places ever make […]

The 2017 Hurricane Season begins on Thursday, June 1. We are currently under a flash flood watch, which has been issued for all parishes over the weekend. Here we go again, I hear you say… Barely two weeks ago, after a couple of days of rain, a large built-up area in Clarendon was awash with […]

Despite what the new President of the United States says, climate change is real. It is with us, here and now. I believe developing countries such as ours have fully acknowledged this fact (as well as ninety-something per cent of scientists). After all, we are already feeling the effects. Jamaicans may not look at regular […]

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew – who is still churning around Cuba and giving the Bahamas and Florida the jitters – one thing struck me. Our friends at the Meteorological Office of Jamaica received unjustifiably harsh criticism from the Jamaican public. It is almost as if some Jamaicans felt cheated that they had gone […]